BEING in charge of the Christmas dinner can be both stressful and time consuming.
But luckily, Great British Bake Off finalist Crystelle Pereira has shared the best way to prep your festive feast so that on Christmas day everything runs totally “seamless.”
In a clip shared to TikTok (@crystellepereira), she begins: “OK, you know what they say, failing to plan is planning to fail.
“So, you want to prep as much as you physically can the day before.”
Beginning with parsnips, she explains: “I’ve washed them and chopped them up into batons…I’ll be making parsnip fries, so that’s done.
“So basically you want to wash, prep and cut everything.
“And with your potatoes, again, I have peeled and cut them into roasties.
“Now you can actually parboil them and then just roast them the next day.
“But I’m just going to cover them with water so they don’t go black.”
Crystelle goes on to say that the biggest pain for her is prepping Brussels sprouts because they “take so long and they’re so dirty.”
She advises: “Get them, wash them, chop them, however you’re going to be cooking them.
“So I roast them in half and I’m also going to shred half…
“Also, another tip is I keep a colander or a bowl just so that all like the tops and tail bits and all the peel can go in there
to try and minimise waste because I’m really messy.”
Next, Crystelle points out that when it comes to carrots, she likes to cut them round or in oval shapes.
“I’m actually going to add straight to the roasting dish – then I’ll just dress them,” she notse.
She goes on to say: “Also, fun fact – the supermarket ran out of the pigs in blankets, so I’m now doing chicken and blankets, because these are Italian chicken sausages, which will be quick
because I’m just wrapping them in the streaky bacon.
“So, again, I’m going to prep them now and then bake them tomorrow.”
The foodie goes on to advise that if you tend to make your stuffing from scratch, then make it the night before and keep it ready for the morning so that all you have to do is bake it.
“This is my miso, caramelised onion, goats cheese, and apple on pork stuffing,” she says. “They’re so good!”
Meat-wise, Crystelle notes that she’s going to make chimichurri chicken.
Having already made the chimichurri, she then says she’s going to marinate the chicken so that she can simply just roast it tomorrow.
“So one of my friends is vegetarian, so I’m going to do her a tandoori
roasted cauliflower for her main,” she continues.
“I’m going to pre boil this today for about five to 10 minutes, and then I’m going to cover the marinade and then roast it tomorrow.”
Crystelle advises: “When it comes to cooking, you want to list out everything on your list to cook, figure out what temperature they all need to roast at and then you can group them together, so things can go in the oven at the same time.
“Then you want to figure out what time your guests are coming
and then work backwards so you can make sure that you give yourself enough time to cook everything and then heat it just before they come.”
It wasn’t long before the post went viral, with many quick to praise the GBBO finalist for sharing her how-to guide.
“This is so useful thank you!!” praised one.
A second commented: “This is exactly what I do. Prep everything the day before and then on the day its just a case of putting things in the oven and taking them out again.”
A third penned: “Great tips!”
Meanwhile, a fourth noted: “This is my plan for this Christmas because I’m so over spending the whole day in the kitchen.”
Another added: “We are HERE for this organisation!”
And one more chimed in: “This is great!”
